Productivity Commission Terms of Reference:
Scope of the Inquiry
In undertaking this Inquiry, the Productivity Commission should use evidence from Australia and
overseas to report on and make recommendations about the following:
1. The contribution that access to affordable, high quality child care can make to:
a. increased participation in the workforce, particularly for women
b. optimising children’s learning and development.
2. The current and future need for child care in Australia*, including consideration of the
following:
a. hours parents work or study, or wish to work or study
b. the particular needs of rural, regional and remote parents, as well as shift workers
c. accessibility of affordable care
d. types of child care available including but not limited to: long day care, family day
care, in home care including nannies and au pairs, mobile care, occasional care, and
outside school hours care
e. the role and potential for employer provided child care
f. usual hours of operation of each type of care
g. the out of pocket cost of child care to families
h. rebates and subsidies available for each type of care
i. the capacity of the existing child care system to ensure children are transitioning from
child care to school with a satisfactory level of school preparedness
j. opportunities to improve connections and transitions across early childhood services
(including between child care and preschool/kindergarten services)
k. the needs of vulnerable or at risk children
l. interactions with relevant Australian Government policies and programmes.
3. Whether there are any specific models of care that should be considered for trial or
implementation in Australia, with consideration given to international models, such as the
home based care model in New Zealand and models that specifically target vulnerable or at
risk children and their families.
4. Options for enhancing the choices available to Australian families as to how they receive child
care support, so that this can occur in the manner most suitable to their individual family
circumstances. Mechanisms to be considered include subsidies, rebates and tax deductions, to
improve the accessibility, flexibility and affordability of child care for families facing diverse
individual circumstances.
5. The benefits and other impacts of regulatory changes in child care over the past decade,
including the implementation of the National Quality Framework (NQF) in States and
Territories, with specific consideration given to compliance costs, taking into account the
Government’s planned work with States and Territories to streamline the NQF.
*The changes to family structures also enhances the importance of high quality care that is readily available; especially for
single parents who may not have a support network, as well as ESL families
Response
Access to affordable high quality education and care for one's children is essential for parental
engagement in the workforce. Child care enables parents to work, particularly mothers, and provides
early educational experiences for children which influence children's learning and development
(Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Therefore child care decisions should be considered alongside parental
employment decisions. Most families choose long day care owing to work commitments (ABS, 2013).
Consequently, the decisions parents make to engage in paid work, or not, are important for the child’s
learning; the child’s well-being and the family’s well-being which contributes to the prosperity of
Australian society. It is important that the child care is of good quality and acceptable to the family,
and enhances the child’s positive learning experiences. The quality of care can be an emotional barrier
to workforce engagement (Harris, 2008) and this, in turn, impacts upon maternal wellbeing in the
workplace (Craig, 2007). Care that is of an acceptable quality to the mother is a key factor in
promoting or preventing workforce participation (Coffey, 2004) as it impacts on maternal well-being
in the workplace (Craig, 2007) and the family's well-being at home. Harris (2008) reports women feel
emotionally torn by the decision to support their family financially at the cost of placing a child in a
non-parental care setting that is deemed as unacceptable.
Being able to access care when required to return to paid work is a important. Some mothers return to
work earlier than intended because they are offered a place at a long day care centre which may not be
available when parental leave expires. This can cause considerable parental distress (Boyd, Thorpe &
Walker, 2013). This study showed some women cut short their entitled parental leave to take up an
offer of a place in a child care centre in case the place was not available at the time when required.
Spaces for children need to be available at the time of the parents' arranged return to paid work. For
women, the timing of return to work, the availability and quality of care, the social attitudes and
policy manifestations are all potential influences on decisions regarding engaging in paid work (Boyd
et al, 2013)
Parents mostly have reported being satisfied with childcare in Australia (for example Berthelsen,
2000; Bowes et al, 2004). These studies sampled women after childcare choice was made.
Investigating satisfaction with care after parents have made their care decision may reflect their
response to the available care- there is the possibility that this research captured post hoc
rationalisation of choice (or even gratefulness) for the care.
Within any decisions about parental engagement in work or study parents will consider the best
available options for their child's care. This may be parental care- where the parents juggle their time
at work/study; informal care (by a relative or friend) or formal care such as long day care or family
day care. Whatever the choices the government should consider providing care that is in the best
interests of the child. Children thrive when they are in care that supports their wellbeing, learning and
development provided by caregivers who are able to provide good quality care. What is required in
Australia is being able to access good quality care. This is the bottom line. Care needs to be of good
quality at all times responsive to the child and supporting the child's learning and development.
Research released by Community Child Care Cooperative (NSW) shows that in November 2013
community based not-for-profit child care centres are outperforming for-profit child care in terms of
provision of quality care. The following table indicates the outcomes from the National Quality
Framework for 1378 long day care and preschool services in NSW:
Quality Outcomes
Exceeding National Quality
Working Towards National
Standard
Quality Standard
Not for profit
84%
19%
For profit
16%
80%
There are many reasons for the success of community based not for profit services including reinvesting monies back into the service, more likely to employ above the minimum child care
regulations, more likely to pay higher wages and have better working conditions for staff which leads
to higher rates of retention of staff. The staff are the most important asset in child care settings, and it
is important to support them in the workplace.
Community based services are run by a committee of parents and are more likely to be responsive to
the parent community in terms of hours of operation, types of services offered and more accountable
to the parents regarding the quality of the children's learning and development. Many community
based services have changed from preschools only open for 6 hours per day to long day care centres
open for 10 hours per day in response to the increased needs of mothers (parents?) to engage in paid
work.
The National Government should make long term plans for the introduction of more community based
not-for-profit services as they are clearly providing better quality education and care. This means
cutting back the for-profit centres whose main interest is to make money out of families who require
care for their young children. Additionally, community based services are more inclusive and more
likely to enrol children with diverse needs and abilities.
The previous Government took important and significant steps for the improvement of early
childhood education and care in Australia. When the Rudd government came to power in 2007
Australia was ranked 22/25 by UNICEF on the Report Card by UNICEF in 2008 for early childhood
education and care, and scored poorly in the Starting Strong II Report OECD (2006). Since that time
the COAG have worked hard to introduce an early years curriculum framework, and reviewed the
accreditation system to how have a National Quality Standard. There are ongoing improvements
planned until 2020 for early childhood education including changing ratios, and these steps should
continue to be implemented
Therefore the next steps for early childhood education and care in Australia must include the
continued implementation of the quality standards of the National Quality Framework as minimum
accreditation; continue to implement all qualification improvements for staff; and continue staff to
child ratio improvements as per the existing timeline.
There should be continued adherence to the implementation of the National Quality Framework and
the following changes to the current models should be made to support all children in Australia:

increase the number of not-for-profit community based early childhood settings, and

reduce the number of for-profit child care centres
Qualified staff
All early childhood settings require university qualified and trained staff. There needs to be
considerable investment in the pay and work conditions of staff in early childhood settings. Qualified
early childhood teachers' wages and work conditions need to be on par with their counterparts in
primary and secondary schools. The university education and training of an early childhood teacher is
just as rigorous as a primary school teacher, and the work just as complex. Improving pay and work
conditions will also improve the standing of early childhood teachers, and support retention in the
workforce. This will cost money but it is essential to the quality of education and care.
Bibliography
Berthelsen, D. (2000). Parental reflections on the use of centre-based child care. Paper presented at
the 8th National Conference of Australian Research in Early Childhood Education, Canberra.
Bowes, J., Wise, S., Harrison, L., Sanson, A., Ungerer, J., Watson, J., & Simpson, T. (2004). Child
care choices: a longitudinal study of children, families and child care in partnership with policy
makers. The Australian Educational Researcher, 31(3), 69-86.
Boyd, W., Thorpe, K., & Walker, S. (2013). Choosing work and care: Australian women negotiating
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Coffey, A. (2004).Reconceptualising social policy. Berkshire: Open University Press.
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Academy Press.
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www.unicef.org